Excess Within Control

...But My Feet Show it, Because they're Longfellows. Speaking of Longfellow: Listen my children, and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere He jumped in his car, stepped on the gas. The bottom fell out and he slid on... the grass. I'll always remember such little silly poems I memorized as a child. For example: Admission is free, pay at the door. Choose your seats and sit on the floor. Ladies and gentlemen, hobos and tramps. Cross eyed mosquitoes and bow-legged ants. I stand here before you, sitting behind you, to tell you a story I know nothing about. One bright day in the middle of the night. Two dead boys came out to fight. Back to back they faced each other. Drew their swords and shot each other. A deaf policeman heard the noise. And came to arrest the two dead boys. And if you don't believe this lie is true. Ask the blind man, he saw it too! Whenever I'm asked how many days there are in a certain month, I recite this: T...

I'm a movie buff and have been one for as long as I can remember. The first movie I can remember is Sitting Pretty (1948). My mother took me to it at the theater in our small Midwest town when I was six years old. About the same time, I remember seeing The Paleface (1948) with Bob Hope. As a child, I saw many westerns (Roy Rogers, Lash La Rue, Tim Holt), comedies ( Ma & Pa Kettle , Francis the Talking Mule, Three Stooges ) musicals ( The Band Wagon, Three Little Words, Hans Christian Anderson ) and tons of cartoons at that little theater. As the spread of television grew, the town commercial club took over the struggling theater and my dad was a volunteer projectionist. The Disney film I have the fondest memories of seeing, is  Melody Time (1948) with its "Little Toot", "Johnny Appleseed" and "Pecos Bill". In my high school years in the late 1950s my friends and I would go to the movies at the drive-in and walk-in theaters in nearby, larger...